Now That's IT: Stories of MSP Success
Now that's IT: Stories of MSP Success dives into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in the Managed Service Provider industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn Managed Services into the thriving sector it is today.
Every episode is packed with the valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiring anecdotes that lead our guests to the transformative moment when they knew, Now, That's IT.
This podcast provides educational information about issues that may be relevant to information technology service providers.
Nothing in the podcast should be construed as any recommendation or endorsement by N-able, or as legal or any other advice.
The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.
Views and opinions expressed by N-able employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of N-able or its officers and directors.
The podcast may also contain forward-looking statements regarding future product plans, functionality, or development efforts that should not be interpreted as a commitment from N-able related to any deliverables or timeframe.
All content is based on information available at the time of recording, and N-able has no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Now That's IT: Stories of MSP Success
Forward Together: Why Open Ecosystems Drive MSP Growth
This week, we’re doing something a little different. We're excited to share an episode from another podcast sponsored by N-able: Beyond the Horizon: Future Focused MSP Insights.
In this episode, Forward Together: Why Open Ecosystems Drive MSP Growth, David Weeks discusses how open platforms and ecosystems are shaping the future for MSPs, and why collaboration is key to driving growth in this space.
It’s a must-listen for anyone looking to stay ahead in the evolving world of managed services.
After you finish listening, be sure to subscribe to Beyond the Horizon so you don’t miss any of their upcoming episodes.
We’ll be back in two weeks with our conversation with Stephen Riddick.
In this episode of Beyond the Horizons, Pete Roythorne is joined by David Weeks, VP of Community at N-able, to delve into the transformative concept of open ecosystems for Managed Service Providers (MSPs). They discuss the evolving role of RMM tools as data aggregators, the importance of integrating diverse software, and the power of AI in enhancing business efficiency. Tune in to explore how MSPs can leverage open ecosystems to drive opportunity, mitigate risks, and ensure scalability.
Topics Discussed:
1. Introduction to Open Ecosystems:
The significance of open ecosystems for MSPs, and the changing role of RMM as a data aggregator.
2. Data Aggregation and Business Insights:
Utilizing data from your RMM to build pipelines and identify sales opportunities, and how data aggregation helps MSPs understand customer needs and trends.
3. Integration and Interoperability:
The necessity of MSPs to use a range of software tools beyond a single vendor's offerings. Challenges and benefits of bi-directional integrations and communication between tools.
4. AI and Automation in MSP Operations:
The role of AI and Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in managing data and making decisions, plus how AI enhances the scalability and efficiency of MSPs.
5. Vendor Relationships and Best-of-Breed Tools:
The risk of single
Hosted by industry veterans, this podcast delves deep into the findings of the MSP Horizons Report, providing actionable insights to transform your IT business. Each episode features in-depth discussions with experts, thought leaders, and successful MSPs who share their experiences and strategies for navigating the ever-evolving landscape of managed services. Listen & Subscribe Wherever You Get Your Podcasts.
'Now that's it: Stories of MSP Success,' dives into the journeys of some of the trailblazers in our industry to find out how they used their passion for technology to help turn Managed Services into the thriving sector it is today.
Every episode is packed with the valuable insights, practical strategies, and inspiring anecdotes that lead our guests to the transformative moment when they knew….. Now, that's it.
This podcast provides educational information about issues that may be relevant to information technology service providers.
Nothing in the podcast should be construed as any recommendation or endorsement by N-able, or as legal or any other advice.
The views expressed by guests are their own and their appearance on the podcast does not imply an endorsement of them or any entity they represent.
Views and opinions expressed by N-able employees are those of the employees and do not necessarily reflect the view of N-able or its officers and directors.
The podcast may also contain forward-looking statements regarding future product plans, functionality, or development efforts that should not be interpreted as a commitment from N-able related to any deliverables or timeframe.
All content is based on information available at the time of recording, and N-able has no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
One, two, three, four, hey everyone Chris Massey here with Now that's it. Stories of MSP Success. This week we're doing something a little different. We're excited to share an episode from another podcast sponsored by Enable, called Beyond the Horizon Future-Focused MSP Insights. In this episode, forward Together why Open Ecosystems Drive MSP Growth. David Weeks discusses how open platforms and ecosystems are shaping the future for MSPs and why collaboration is key to driving growth in this space. It's a must listen for anyone looking to stay ahead in the evolved world of managed services. After you finish listening, be sure to subscribe to Beyond the Horizon so you don't miss any of their upcoming episodes. We'll be back in two weeks with our conversation with Stephen Riddick. You won't want to miss it. Until then, enjoy the episode.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Beyond the Horizons podcast, where we take a deeper dive into some of the key topics raised in the MSP Horizons report, produced in conjunction with Canalys. In this episode, enable VP of Community David Weeks, discusses the changing role of the RMM and how it is increasingly being used as a control center for data aggregation across your tech stack. Being used as a control centre for data aggregation across your tech stack. Plus, we explore how developing an open ecosystem that allows a broad range of tools to easily talk to each other and share data is critical to developing efficiencies as well as helping MSPs move further upstream in search of new revenue streams. We're going to talk about open ecosystems today, dave, so the MSP Horizons report that we did, one of the things that came back the role of the RMM is starting to change a little bit, and I think this is where we start to talk about the concept of the RMM as a data aggregator.
Speaker 3:It's starting to come around. It's actually interesting. It's actually interesting I've been saying this now for over a year actually about this fact that MSPs and service providers have this tooling that sits there, that holds this massive amount of data, and we've all got to find a way to harness that data. And there's a few things that it does. You're right, it's a data aggregator, but it's also the ability to build pipeline and sales opportunity, to look at trending across your customer base, because a lot of what you see out there and a lot of service providers see and they might see.
Speaker 3:Oh, across my 50 customers, I'm seeing that the majority of them utilize X, y and Z. Well, that means your prospective customers probably have the exact same need as well too. So utilizing and harnessing that is critical. Then figuring out how do we also utilize, as it does, that aggregation of data to push that out, to decide, hey, what else can it do within my systems to help me be better, more efficient, drive more opportunity, more profitability, whatever it might be? So, yes, there is a shift coming. The RMM will always be there. It's going to be like, really like the control panel as we write, and it's going to be the one who kind of looks at all of this data and says, well, what do we do with it?
Speaker 2:But then you've got to help direct it the way that you want to maximize the benefit of all of that data, this concept of also having the ability to play nicely with a whole stack of other stuff within the industry, because we can't expect MSPs to not want to have other bits of software that don't necessarily sit under the umbrella of the same vendor as the RMM.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. I mean, look, no vendor can be one vendor to everybody, right? It just doesn't work that way. Msps, as they move into more complex environments, more complex management, require a different level of tooling today. But the idea is that how do they all talk to each other, right? And that's really the key. And it's not just integrations, right, that we hear about. It's about bi-directional discussions utilizing things like AI and RPA and so forth to allow these tools to really understand what each do.
Speaker 3:And the way I kind of explain is you think about it almost like the RMM, and that data aggregation becomes an orchestrator, right? And with that data, it says, ok, who's going to take the action? Is it going to be the RMM and we report into the ticketing, the PSA, the ITSM, whatever it might be? Or are we going to take that? Tell something out in the ecosystem? You go, take the action and report back to me that the issue is resolved, and if not, I'll try another avenue. And so this is becoming complex for us as vendors, for us who provide these types of platforms and unified management, but it's also becoming complex for the service provider, because as they see that their tooling grows, they have to find a way to allow that to work well together and have that synergy. If you don't, you're managing disparate tools, your tech utilization goes down, you're not managing to the level of your customers' expectations.
Speaker 3:So all of these areas have to be considered as we think about this 360 view or, as I say, the circle of life. When you think about your tool stack, it always has to come back around to zero and be able to continue that circle and continue that discussion.
Speaker 2:And this is a kind of slightly contentious point, I suppose how damaging really is it for MSPs to just be siphoned, if you like, into just using a specific set of tool sets, a specific tool stack that an RMM vendor wants you to use? You always?
Speaker 3:have to ask the question are you getting best of breed? Do you have the versatility that you need? If you get into a single stack like that and suddenly you realize maybe one or two pieces of the tool and don't work for you, now you've lost buying power out with other vendors, right, and now you're having to break that up and figure out a way to make it all work together. And, like I said at the start, there's no one vendor who can provide everything. It just doesn't work.
Speaker 3:And the way that security and cloud management and all of these areas of professional services, right and augmentation and co-managed are starting to model out with service providers, it's becoming more and more of a need to be able to have that versatility, to say, okay, what is it that I require? You know, as I said, the co-manage. When we look at that, or co-partnering with internal IT, there's going to be scenarios where they say use our tooling and have it, talk to yours. So if you're in a single stack and a closed ecosystem, that's extremely difficult to allow that to happen. And now you're jeopardizing your opportunity or your relationships and are you managing to the edges, Like if you're stuck in a set of tooling. What are you missing? Because you're probably missing something out there that you're not seeing that other tooling would be able to provide you.
Speaker 2:And I think it's interesting because you start talking about co-managing, co -partnering. Is this, I suppose, endemic of a challenge that MSPs will get as they move further upstream?
Speaker 3:Well, absolutely, and you're also going to be subjected to their buying power and their requirements, right? So I mean they may have gone out and negotiated with another vendor because of their size, because they're 2,000, 3,000, 4,000 users, right, and they have a preferred solution that they utilize internally, coming in and saying, well, break that contract, get out, you have to use mine, it's not going to work, right, and so you've got it. If you don't have that flexibility and the ability to say, that's okay, bring your own tooling, bring your own devices, bring your own needs. All inserted into my Econverse and my ecosystem, we'll allow them to talk to each other. We share the data and the results and happy days. Everybody moves on from there and they get what they need. That's being a partner. That's not being somebody who comes in and says it's my way or no way, because that's never going to win you a lot of business.
Speaker 2:You touch on the, the the ecoverse concept, which is obviously the way that we're positioning that as a business.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, you know what it is. We're opening the doors and we're saying no-transcript, right, so it's single point of failure. Even though it might be what we know we always call single pane of glass or spog, can also mean a single point of failure. That versatility allows you to segregate a bit, have everything, talk to each other, but also put your own protection and risk mitigation around each of those areas as well too. So there's a whole bunch of benefits to vote.
Speaker 3:Yes, I can go to one vendor and say give me everything. And yeah, I'm going to have buying power, right, and that's great, I will. But again, I'm probably not getting the best of breed tools in that whole package that I want. And that's what MSPs have to think about today. Look, if they came to us and there was a certain tooling and a service provider said to me and I've done this on numerous occasions and meetings and they've said, well, you have this solution and I want to take a look at it. And I said, well, it's not fit for you, it's not fit for your type of business, right, and that's really as we all work collectively together in the industry as vendors and as IT service providers and MSPs right. We can collectively win by building out ecosystems that allow us all to have that ability to mitigate our risk, drive optimum opportunity right and at the same time, drive efficiency but utilize best of breeds, so we're all taking care of ourselves.
Speaker 2:It's about empowering choice, isn't it as well? That's really what it boils down to, and you touched on this earlier. It's kind of like let's move away from the concept of integration, because it's not just an integration. It's way more than an integration, isn't it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it absolutely is. Look at, I mean, integration is the initial component of it, right, to allow something to talk to each other. After that, integration with the APIs, it's that. What can we extract, what can we do? How can we talk?
Speaker 3:I mean, look at some of the ones that we've done out there with PSAs and so forth, where you know, we've got AI and we're talking back and forth and the AI is helping to make decisions. Like that's the infinite possibilities that we see, how we can harness this new technology that's out there to allow us to say, ok, you know what? I don't need to put a human in front of everything, because that's not scalable either. Right, the systems have a lot of power that can be harnessed, and most service providers don't necessarily harness all the power of their tooling. I think we all know that. But as we start to bring in things like AI and so forth, that will naturally pull the power out for you and give you the results that you need. That's a win for everybody. Right, humans make mistakes. Right, that's okay, we understand that and that's not an issue. But we have to think about how we can utilize some of that other technology that's out there to allow us to drive forward at a faster pace and, more importantly, bring a scalability peak right.
Speaker 3:I mean, like I said, we all know there's still a labor shortage. It's getting better, but we can't just throw a human at everything. That's not a way to run a business. And so if we can get this working right through the ecoverse and the ecosystem, now you start to collectively take the power of that ecosystem and allow it to do a lot of the management for you. And look at your end customer All they care is they stay up and running management for you. And look at your end customer All they care is they stay up and running, they're efficient, they're productive right. They don't care how you do it. So utilize those best tools, get it into the right ecosystem and I guarantee that, as service providers, they'll absolutely see a huge benefit to their business and their end customers.
Speaker 2:Once you start opening that up and you're able to pull in data from different areas, then the AI itself becomes much more powerful and much more kind of informative for your business as well, doesn't it? Well, it is.
Speaker 3:And when you look collectively at something like an ecosystem versus a single stack from a single vendor, that vendor will probably aggregate data in a certain way, so you don't get the variety of aggregation of data either, right? When you open an ecosystem, everybody records and collects data differently. And you're right, as we start to layer on those things like RPA and AI, that can now look at all of that and say let me give it back to you in a cohesive message, or your customer in a cohesive message. So I mean, we're just scratching the surface of this today, right, and it's only going to continue to roll forward. And that's really where you know when we made the decision as an organization to say open the doors, right, take down the walls, come on in and let's work together. Listen, there's enough business to go around for all of us as vendors and as service providers, right? The more that we work together, the more that we all win, and that's really what we're all trying to do in the end is drive our businesses forward.
Speaker 2:How are our?
Speaker 3:partners kind of reacting to this. They're excited, and it's not just our customers, it's vendors as well. Right, I mean, I'm out meeting with a lot of other vendors who have heard what we're doing and they're coming to us proactively and saying well, how do I be a part of this? Right, we all have our own channels that we work with it. Right, we all have our own target markets and ecosystem allows to share some of that as well, too, which is a really neat initiative, and it's almost like crowdsourcing opportunity is the way that I say it and the more that we open that up and the more that we're all willing to work together, it's a win.
Speaker 3:I mean, look, we have integrations and we have API calls that are open, and we have people in our ecosystem who are direct competitors of ours, why Our customers want choice. They prefer that tool, use that tool. Right, and I think that's where we're a little bit different. But no, ultimately, out on the road and you're right, I'm out every day it's it's excitement. Right, it is absolute excitement. When they hear what we're doing and they understand the vision, they say you know what? This is actually what we've been looking for. We were going to build it ourselves, but if you have the ability to build it and allow us to bring what we need into it, that's a win-win.
Speaker 2:How do you see the market in this perspective in terms of you know different vendors and products working together to the benefit of MSP? How do you see that kind of panning out over the next three to five years?
Speaker 3:Right now, we're kind of at a tipping point, or even almost say a quagmire, of what's my better option. Do I single source or do I go open ecosystem? Right, and the channel is going to decide that right. The channel is in. Service providers are going to decide it, and I think the tide's going to turn very quickly and they're going to ask all of their vendors to be a part of these ecosystems. Right, and those ecosystems don't end with one vendor. It's cross ecosystem in the end, whenever you think about it. Right, and what we'll start to see is this collective, global ecosystem that now service providers can decide where do I fit in, how deep and how wide do I want to go, and that's just giving them choice. And when you discuss it that way with them in the market, that's where the excitement comes in is give me more choice, don't limit my choice.
Speaker 2:Yeah, let me build the tools that I need to do the job that I want to do.
Speaker 3:Well and what their customers need, right? I mean, look, there's a lot more regulation and compliance out there now. When we look at things like compliance as a service, it drives particular tool sets or tooling or types of tooling that are required. Listen, you're not going to get a lot of that from a single vendor. There's a lot we don't do, nor will probably ever do right. Single vendor there's a lot we don't do, nor will probably ever do right. But if we can allow you to bring that in so that's part of your management and risk mitigation strategy, that we should be doing that for you. Ecosystem, in that term, has been around for a very long time, but we have new capabilities now to make it even better and to do it much faster, and that's what I think we're trying to do, and I think that's the difference people are going to see going forward is just how much power this is going to bring them, and power obviously will bring that opportunity and the ability for them to drive their businesses forward in the way that they want.
Speaker 2:As ever, mr Weeks, it's been a fascinating conversation and again I feel it could have sort of like if I wasn't just focused on this particular topic. We could have drifted on for at least another half an hour, but no, that's great.
Speaker 3:Thank you very much for your time. Look forward to speaking to you again about another topic. I love it. Thanks, pete, I'll chat soon.